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A roundup of elder law news and practice development articles culled from news sources across the nation during the week of April 16, 2024, to April 22, 2024.
READ MOREThe Supreme Court of the State of Kansas upholds the decision of a lower court in a case concerning the legal duty of a spouse to provide medical and subsistent care or summon medical care for the other spouse. In...
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FROM THE KNOWLEDGE BANK
A Massachusetts attorney will no longer be able to practice law after allegations that he misused nearly $300,000 from a special needs trust, according to the Worcester Telegram.
Paul Kolesnikovas was accused by the Massachusetts Board of Overseers of misusing more than $119,000 from a nonprofit animal shelter, where he had served on the board from 2015 to 2018.
To cover his tracks, Kolesnikovas allegedly reimbursed the animal shelter by removing funds from a separate special needs trust for which he had been appointed trustee. He also allegedly misused “at least” an additional $166,000 from the same trust,
Kolesnikovas has now been disbarred, as of July 23, 2020. Although he submitted an affidavit of resignation to the Board, he denied committing any criminal wrongdoing.
In essentially every state in the country, one of the most common reasons attorneys are disbarred is when they fail to keep clients’ property—especially trust property—separate from their own property.
In its recommendation for Kolesnikovas’ disbarment, the Board found that his conduct violated the provisions of the Massachusetts Rules of Professional Conduct concerning an attorney’s obligations to hold “trust property separate from his own” and that “trust property shall be appropriately safeguarded.” It also found that Kolesnikovas violated the provisions concerning “dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation,” and “conduct adversely reflecting on fitness to practice.”
Kolesnikovas had run a law firm in Charlton, Massachusetts, since 1986, known as the Law Office of Paul G. Kolesnikovas where he specialized in “elder law, real estate, adoption and personal injury,” according to his website, which no longer contains any content.
Click here to read the full Judgment of Disbarment from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
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